Fringey day

Had a couple of work meetings in the morning then knocked off at lunchtime to see some Fringey things. All in all a very good Fringe-going day for me - four shows at minimal cost (£7.40 total) and a great variety of ridiculous stuff. Very happy.

Fringe Show 3: Oedipus (1*)
I picked this one because it sounded proper - it had a few TV actors in it, a fairly high ticket price (although I didn't have to pay), it had favourable reviews for non-Edinburgh previews, and was held in a large Pleasance venue. I hated it. It was a contemporary adaptation which apparently is now covered by the actors speaking in regional accents and wearing flat caps. Plus it was just so... pretentious. And like beyond the level of pretention one might expect for a greek tragedy. I don't know how to describe just how tedious I found it. Plus I found it hard to pick out the plot from the pretentiousness - I had to look it up on Wikipaedia half way through. I would have personally prefered them to cut the first hour and twenty minutes (which would have been adequately covered with one line - "There was a prophecy") and just left the last twenty minutes. The lighting was excellent though, they did some nice stuff with the greek chorus and with costumes and shadows. I'd say about 20 people walked out during the play, but it received a standing ovation and rapturous whooping at the end - so this play is proper marmite. (pictured)

Fringe Show 4: The Noise Next Door (4*)
We had seen this improv group last year and they were excellent - very very slick and consistent. They were good again this year, and in fact one part was so funny that I laughed until tears ran down my face.

Fringe Show 5: Claudia O'Doherty: What is soil erosion? (3*)
Character based comedy about a girl who wants to make a TV programme about soil erosion. With lasers. You have to wonder what drives some people to think there is n hour's worth of potential comedy gold in soil erosion, but of course it was more about the character than the soil and I'd say it did work. Weird weird weird certainly. And uncomfortable cringey observation.

Fringe Show 6: Michael Workman: Humans are beautiful (3*)
I don't quite know what to make of this guy except to say I think there was artistic merit in his performance and some people would really like it. I quite enjoyed it. It was basically a whimsical and bittersweet fictional narrative. However it was performed in a sweatbox, even by usual standards - ew.